26Jul14

Experts urge learning lessons from world wars

More than 200 historians on Saturday urged people around the globe to learn
lessons from the two world wars and avoid the outbreak of a third one.

Experts from the U.S., Russia, Serbia, German, Japan and other countries
held an international conference in Beijing to retrospect the World War I and II
ahead of the 100th anniversary of WWI, which falls on Monday.

As in 1914, some traces of the old security concept can still be seen in
international affairs in 2014, warned Li Chenggang, associate professor of the
Academy of Military Sciences of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

"The U.S. is treating the countries which are rising quickly in a time of
globalization as those powers did a century ago in a time of imperialism and
realpolitik," he said.

To ensure its own absolute security, the U.S. has frequently carried out military
interventions in other countries, resulting in suspicion, envy and hostility
among powers, Li added, urging people to avoid the same mistakes as those
made 100 years ago.

Historians also warned of the revival of militarism in Japan. Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe's policies threaten the peace of Japan and lead the country down
a dangerous path, said Nakayama Toshio with the Clausewitz Society of
Japan.

The Abe Administration's strategy to corner China by aligning with other
nations is not only a comeback under the wing of the United States'
hegemony, but also a demonstration of the Japan-US alliance in the 21st
century that means more than the resurgence of Japanese militarism, he
added.

At the conference, Chinese scholars refuted the "China threat theory," which
compares emerging China with rising Germany that challenged the Vienna
system before World War I.

"The view that China is the challenger to the existing world order is extremely
wrong as it didn't, doesn't and won't follow the footsteps of those big powers to
seek hegemony once they grew powerful," said Lyu Jie, professor with the
Chinese Military Academy.

[Source: Xinhua, Beijing, 26Jul14]

This document has been published on 29Jul14 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with
Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational
purposes.